About

Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™

CA$ 2,484

pledged of CA$ 2,000 goal

30

backers

The Game

Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™ is a fantasy deck-building card game with lore based on the Heroes of Karth™ book series. When you play a match it feels like you become part of the epic struggle to save the world of Karth. Deathmatch can be played with 2-4 players in 4 different game modes:

1 vs. 1 (play against one opponent)2 vs. 2 Co-op (play with a friend against two others). 3 & 4 Player Free-for-all (play a survivor match). Adventure Mode (play as the Dungeon Master against up to 3 Adventurers).

In Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™ you and your opponent are either part of the Allegiance (Elf) or the Shard (Goblin) faction. Use one of the 12 balanced starter decks to begin playing with a strong deck-build. Advanced players can build their own decks to suit their own particular strategy. Choose 2 hero cards to lead your unit cards! Arm yourself with spell and treasure cards!! Hire and position your cards onto the Battlefield and fight a death match, with victory coming to the player with the best strategy or most luck!

El reglamento y las cartas estarán disponibles en español para todos los mecenas. || The rules and cards will be available in Spanish for all pledges.

Print & Play Trial Pack

Don't just take our word for it - discover for yourself the magic in our card game. We are releasing FREE tinted versions of our Starter Decks so you can try ALL 12 before you buy them. No need to wait a year to get what you pledged for!! Download our FREE PDF trial decks:

Print the cards, cut them out, add them into card sleeves and start playing right away!

Save Money With Our FREE App

Instead of gold coins and blue and black dice, use our free app, available on both iOS and Android (Just search for Heroes of Karth). Deathmatch is one of those games that works very well with an app!

With a successful Kickstarter we plan to expand on the app so it captures player rankings and retailers can use the Tournament Manager to coordinate local events. The high ranking players will be invited to special tournaments organized by Heroes of Karth Inc.

The Gameplay

Players need to outwit their opponent’s strategy in a tabletop game where the cards are the game pieces and gold coins are used to hire additional cards onto the Battlefield. Players must balance between using their gold to hire units, mercenaries and heroes and saving gold for the win condition. Utilize a wide range of options including ranged or melee classes, spells, pets, magic items, traps, poison, stealth units, healers, totems and of course, the Undead Curse. With over 200 cards rendered with stunningly beautiful original artwork the deck-building choices are unlimited for advanced players, but because of the 100 gold value limit placed on any deck all the starter decks are equally as competitive. Play a Deathmatch where strategy and the careful management of resources and placement of your cards can make the difference between winning and losing!

Play Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™ in six easy steps:

Choose your side - Allegiance or Shard?

Select a deck from 1 of 12 starter decks. If you prefer you can also build your own deck with over 200 cards to choose from. Decks are always balanced as all cards have a gold value associated with them (including terrain) and no deck may exceed a 100 gold total value. This ensures balanced play (to insert a powerful card something else would have to be removed).

Set-up the game

Sort the deck into Barracks, Spellbook, Treasury and Token piles. Then get your starting cards and gold.

Determine who is the Attacker and who is the Defender.

The Attacker creates half of the Battlefield using Terrain cards and then the Defender completes the Battlefield. The Defender then hires 1 unit (any unit except mercenaries and animals). New units start on Spawner tiles and are placed on the Battlefield facing the opponent, showing that they cannot move on that turn.

Starting a Turn

Players alternate turns, starting each turn by drawing 1 card and getting 1 gold. Then they assess the cards in their hand, manage their resources and hire units onto the Battlefield.

Managing Cards on the Battlefield

Each card on the Battlefield takes a turn. But before managing the cards, a new turn means a new card draw and new gold which can be used to add more cards in play.

Winning the Game

The battle rages on with each player carefully managing their resources and managing their units until 1 player earns victory by being the first to accumulate either 40 unspent gold or 25 Kill Points, or captures all their opponent's Spawner tiles!

The Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™ is a great mix of unit positioning and strategy requiring each player to carefully plan their turns and manage their resources to achieve victory against their opponent. The numerous and diverse characters allow for a variety of play styles, and every match is a unique experience.

The Gameplay Videos

The gameplay walk-throughs provide a good sense of how to play but do not fully reflect the rules in its entirety. For game rules, refer to our website.

Unfiltered Gamer will be doing more of our game walkthroughs and live sessions showcasing each of our decks! We will update you on all of our events as we dive deeper into the Kickstarter campaign!

The Pledges

At the end of the Kickstarter campaign we'll contact you to sort out which Hero Cards and Starter Decks you have chosen.

Help Build Our World!

We appreciate your pledges. You can help us further by sharing the news about our campaign with your friends and family.

Rare Hero Cards will only be available through Kickstarter, conventions and special events

Rare Hero Cards will only be available through Kickstarter, conventions and special events

Rare Hero Cards will only be available through Kickstarter, conventions and special events

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The next pledge involves making a choice of one or more starter decks. It is important to note all you need to play the game is 2 decks and 14 red dice. The gold and box sets come with additional accessories but are not mandatory to play the game.

The variety of different themed starter decks is a huge part of what makes our game so special (hence the important interruption). When playing RPG games what is your favorite class or do you have more than one? When playing as elves many of us are rangers, druids or mages right? But perhaps the Phalanx spell will sway you to choosing warriors this time! What about when playing monster races? Warriors or Necromancers? We have some unique classes for both factions (e.g. the Moonguard deck loaded with Moonguard paladins with bows and teleportation spells or the Spider Deck with Spiderlings, Spider Riders, poison and the powerful Spider Queen who can turn into a cocoon and spit out Spiderlings). Each deck is so special! Put in the hands of creative players the deck combinations will get very interesting!

During this Kickstarter campaign (we are in it for the max time), we will be using our extra time to highlight all the cool things about each deck. If you choose a starter deck option you can wait until the end of the campaign to decide which one we will send your way. By the end of our campaign you will be well informed about all the decks and will know which ones you prefer!

20 second delay between animations!

20 second delay between animations!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This next pledge highlights a different game play "adventure" mode using the same decks for our regular game. The adventure mode is more of a fun match and will not be part of the planned official tournaments. If you are more just in it for fun and like the dungeon crawl and dungeon creation aspect this option may be the better choice. With a couple extra starter decks it is a very fun game for 3 or 4 players! It comes as a boxed set complete with the Warrior and Necromancer Decks (enough for 2 players) except using dungeon terrain cards instead of the regular terrain cards. Players can substitute other decks to play adventure mode. The dungeon tiles are actually sold separately at The Game Crafter so if you have two Starter Decks and are also interested in trying this out you can purchase it separately instead of buying the boxed version. The dungeon tiles are also included in our ultimate package (so you can play both game modes)! For more details on the Dungeon Pack click here.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This next pledge is the core main game complete with gold coins and all the dice you need to play. Its custom box with your own choice of Starter Decks is exclusive to Kickstarter. The Deluxe Edition is currently available on The Game Crafter but it comes with the Warrior and Necromancer decks.

The Stretch Goals

We will be releasing 12 Booster packs that align with the Starter Deck themes to allow further deck tweaking. Beyond the planned booster packs we feel there is lots of fun and exciting other cards to add but can only commit to them with stretch goals. Each stretch goal that gets achieved will unlock a bonus booster pack for specified backer levels (each booster will come with 16 cards).

The Expansion Goals

Each expansion goal that gets achieved will mean we will start working on production right away. All backers will be invited to Beta events!

The Story

From deep in the bowels of the Mines of Taas to the human kingdom of Hathaway, the Curse of the Undead is spreading across Green Valley like the vilest of plagues, wiping out all life in its path. Employing his army of shades to drain their life energy, Xeon the Undead Shadow Dragon has destroyed thousands of worlds throughout the millennia, and the world of Karth is next in his path of destruction. A chance meeting between Llythwain, autistic son of an elf Ranger and Killian, an undead shade has altered the familiar pattern of events, sowing the seeds of a monumental clash between the living and the dead, between good and evil, between the Allegiance and the Shard and Xeon's ferocious undead army. "The Undead Curse threatens Green Valley! The human necromancers are to blame!" With the utterance of those words by the Elven Lords, the Allegiance pact between humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and barbarians weakens, just as that of the Shard races grows in strength. By uniting the ogres, goblins, spiders, orcs, kobolds and hill giants under one banner, Xeon has awakened ancient hatred between the two mighty factions and the Shard is ready for war. A group of heroes, a human, gnome, and two dwarves led by an elf mage must gather the strength and courage to unlock the secret of the Undead Curse, but their time is running out.

Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead

Our team has worked for two years creating both a game and the beginning of a series of novels providing a rich lore and fresh new take on the classic fantasy genre, and have been rewarded with 5 stars book reviews so far! When I wrote the first book in this series I decided that each chapter would stand on its own, similar to a television series. I also spent considerable time analyzing recipes from other successful books to make sure all the good attributes that I like are present in these novels. Book one has a merry band of mercenary heroes typical of a classic adventuring party, with a half-elf mage, gnome thief, dwarf bandit, human knight and dwarf berserker. These guys are fun, know how to enjoy themselves and are full of personality. There is also plenty of mystery and a love story or three. The story focuses on two monster races in unusual detail, looking at various societal issues they face. Did I mention an undead shadow dragon with a crazy powerful artifact? The end result is an epic and intriguing tale where the heroes try to unlock the mysterious secret of the Curse of the Undead.

Click on the "Learn More" link at Amazon to view the first 3 chapters! This is just the beginning for the Heroes of Karth, and we have several novels planned that will expand on the lore.

The Creator

Creating the Heroes of Karth™ has been a quite a journey for my family and I, with plenty of ups and downs for all of us. In brief, ten years ago my son Gregory was diagnosed with Aspergers, explaining his significant difficulties with social interaction and communication. Having a child diagnosed with autism changed my life forever for the better, opening my eyes to a completely new world. Living with Gregory and watching him grow up inspired me to do something more for him and everyone living with autism and I have become a strong supporter of the cause, seeing myself as their defacto champion.

As a result of this life-changing event, I made the decision to revisit my childhood dream to write a book and create a game based on my favorite literary genre. That book, Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead™ is available now in paperback and electronic format at Amazon and $1 from every book sold is donated to support autism. This is Book One in the Heroes of Karth Series and I have already started writing Book Two, Heroes of Karth: The Rise of the Necromancers.

The card game, Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™ is now available on The Game Crafter and its lore is based on the same storyline as the book. The world that I created is immersed into the card game and when you play a match it feels like you have become part of the epic struggle to save the world of Karth. I am so pleased with the result of the years of writing, testing, and development, and I hope all of you are too!

The Team

During the over 2-year writing and development process of Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead™ and Heroes of Karth: Deathmatch™, over 100 people helped create and mold the concepts of both the book and game. Early on in the process we conducted focus groups to ensure our storyline was one that everyone would enjoy. Being a fan of fantasy writing and games, Grant wanted to take everything that he loved about the genre and create a world that like-minded people would also enjoy and love. As his editor, Ed Winters has worked tirelessly with Grant, ensuring his ideas were communicated properly both in the book and game.

Once game development started the team grew in size and expertise with Benjamin Dunlop and Matthew Moulton as the Lead Developers. Travis Milne contributed to development and testing and was relentless in finding ways to blow up our game, ensuring that there are no gameplay issues and that it is worthy of tournament play. The testing was expanded to a local co-op program where over 20 students led by Instructor Patrick Pichette had tremendous impact on the game’s morph from strictly 2 player to its now multiplayer modes.

The artistic team was lead by Toma Feizo Gas, the art director who crafted the visual identity of our game and lead the 6 freelance artists that helped bring it all to life. Toma's breadth of experience creating visuals for table top games was instrumental, and includes such brands as Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Conan & Magic the Gathering.

Last year we broke cover on the game by expanding into Open Beta and did a roadshow to various cons including Gen Con, where our fan base started growing rapidly once people saw the magic that we were creating, with 1700 followers now on Facebook. In the end the impact from the fans has given us all the impetus necessary to add the finishing touches we needed to make this game ready for launch.

Connect and stay updated!

Risks and challenges

Heroes of Karth™ (HoK) has already chosen The Game Crafter (TGC) to distribute the game components and KS rewards, virtually eliminating any risks to you. By going with TGC it helps guarantee we will have no production or shipping challenges.

Most of our game is complete and the core product is already available for purchase online. We published the initial product early to help gain your confidence and reduce any risk. With 80% of the art done and all our remaining product line fully tested, we are pleased to announce that a successful Kickstarter will result in a December 2017 release to all backer levels!

The Game Crafter (TGC) has recently improved its shipping services and offers a service called Bulk Order Fulfillment (BOF) allowing Heroes of Karth™ (HoK) to ship all pledges to multiple addresses at the same time.

Before shipping your product we will verify your order. Shipping fees will be calculated at check-out. Although recipients are responsible for any applicable import duties/fees, we have priced our product as low as possible to compensate for the shipping & import duties/fees. TGC is in the United States so backers from USA benefit the most.

Heroes of Karth™ stands by all of its products. Please contact our customer service department at info@heroesofkarth.com within 30 days of receiving your pledge reward(s) if you are for any reason unsatisfied. We will take every step available to get you exactly what you purchased. We will also send you tracking information whenever possible to remain transparent throughout the delivery of your purchase.

We will always do our best through Kickstarter updates to keep you informed as to the status of your order.

To put it simply, you will get everything we promise to you when you pledge to our Kickstarter project, and it will be delivered to you in as timely a manner as possible.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 4 or more
About $3

Retailer Exclusive

Select this pledge to receive a PDF catalogue of the Heroes of Karth Product Line along with 1 Exclusive Merchant In-game Card (available only through the Kickstarter Campaign). Backers will also be invited to the Alpha & Beta access to the Tournament Manager.

FREE Shipping!

This pledge level is not eligible for bonus products from stretch goals.

Includes:
PDF catalogue of the Heroes of Karth Product Line
1 Exclusive Merchant In-Game Card
Early access to the Tournament Manager

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 5 or more
About $4

Kickstarter Special Offer

Select this pledge to receive a free electronic copy of the Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead along with your choice of 1 Rare Hero Card (available only through Kickstarter, conventions and special events).

FREE Shipping!

This pledge level is not eligible for bonus products from stretch goals.

Includes:
Electronic copy of The Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead
Choice of 1 Rare Hero Card

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 10 or more
About $8

Double Down!

Add an additional Rare Hero Card!

Select this pledge to receive a free electronic copy of the Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead along with your choice of 2 Rare Hero Cards (available only through Kickstarter, conventions and special events).

FREE Shipping!

This pledge level is not eligible for bonus products from stretch goals.

Includes:
Electronic copy of The Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead
Choice of 2 Rare Hero Cards

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 15 or more
About $11

Triple Down!!

Select this pledge to receive a free electronic copy of the Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead along with your choice of 4 Rare Hero Cards (available only through Kickstarter, conventions and special events).

FREE Shipping!

This pledge level is not eligible for bonus products from stretch goals.

Includes:
Electronic copy of The Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead
Choice of 4 Rare Hero Cards

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 70 or more
About $53

The Mines of Taas Dungeon Adventure Pack

This pledge gives you everything you need to play a 1v1 match in "adventure mode" where 1 player is the Dungeon Master!

This pledge does NOT receive the Starter Deck tiers as it already comes with the Warrior and Necromancer Decks as part of the boxed set (except it uses dungeon terrain cards instead of the regular ones).

Shipping fees will be calculated at check-out.

This pledge level is eligible for a choice of 1 booster pack from stretch goals that are met.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 100 or more
About $76

Custom Deluxe Edition

Select this pledge to receive all previous rewards (except the Mines of Taas Dungeon Adventure Pack) along with all of the accessories from the Deluxe Edition plus the choices of decks from the two Starter Deck tiers and a custom designed box (Kickstarter Exclusive) matching your deck choices!

Shipping fees will be calculated at check-out.

This pledge level is eligible for 2 bonus products from stretch goals that are unlocked.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 150 or more
About $114

The Ultimate Package

Select this pledge to receive all previous rewards (except the Mines of Taas Dungeon Adventure Pack) along with all of the accessories from the Deluxe Edition plus the choices of decks from the two Starter Deck tiers and a custom designed box (Kickstarter Exclusive) matching your deck choices! You also get the Dungeon Terrain Cards so you can play the Mines of Taas Adventure mode! You also get an autographed paperback copy of the Heroes of Karth: The Curse of the Undead and 4 rare hero cards!!

Shipping fees will be calculated at check-out.

This pledge level is eligible for all bonus products from stretch goals that are unlocked.